Indian Boyhood

by Ohiyesa (Charles A. Eastman)

My Plays and Playmates

I: Games and Sports

THE Indian boy was a prince of
the wilderness. He had but very
little work to do during the period
of his boyhood. His principal
occupation was the practice of a
few simple arts in warfare and the
chase. Aside from this, he was master of his
time.

Whatever was required of us boys was quickly
performed: then the field was clear for our games
and plays. There was always keen competition
among us. We felt very much as our fathers
did in hunting and war – each one strove to excel
all the others.

It is true that our savage life was a precarious
one, and full of dreadful catastrophes; however,
this never prevented us from enjoying our sports
to the fullest extent. As we left our teepees in
the morning, we were never sure that our scalps
would not dangle from a pole in the afternoon!
It was an uncertain life, to be sure. Yet we observed that the fawns skipped and played happily
while the gray wolves might be peeping forth
from behind the hills, ready to tear them limb
from limb.

Our sports were molded by the life and customs of our people; indeed, we practiced only
what we expected to do when grown. Our games
were feats with the bow and arrow, foot and pony
races, wrestling, swimming and imitation of the
customs and habits of our fathers. We had sham
fights with mud balls and willow wands; we played
lacrosse, made war upon bees, shot winter arrows
(which were used only in that season), and coasted
upon the ribs of animals and buffalo robes.

No sooner did the boys get together than, as a
usual thing, they divided into squads and chose
sides; then a leading arrow was shot at random
into the air. Before it fell to the ground a volley
from the bows of the participants followed. Each
player was quick to note the direction and speed
of the leading arrow and he tried to send his own
at the same speed and at an equal height, so that
when it fell it would be closer to the first than any
of the others.

It was considered out of place to shoot by first
sighting the object aimed at. This was usually
impracticable in actual life, because the object was
almost always in motion, while the hunter himself
was often upon the back of a pony at full gallop.
Therefore, it was the off-hand shot that the Indian
boy sought to master. There was another game
with arrows that was characterized by gambling,
and was generally confined to the men.

The races were an every-day occurrence. At
noon the boys were usually gathered by some
pleasant sheet of water and as soon as the ponies
were watered, they were allowed to graze for
an hour or two, while the boys stripped for their
noonday sports. A boy might say to some other
whom he considered his equal:

"I can't run; but I will challenge you to fifty
paces."

A former hero, when beaten, would often explain his defeat by saying: " I drank too much
water."

Boys of all ages were paired for a "spin," and
the little red men cheered on their favorites with
spirit.

As soon as this was ended, the pony races followed. All the speedy ponies were picked out
and riders chosen. If a boy declined to ride, there
would be shouts of derision.

Last of all came the swimming. A little urchin
would hang to his pony's long tail, while the latter, with only his head above water, glided sportively along. Finally the animals were driven into a fine field of grass and we turned our attention
to other games.

Lacrosse was an older game and was confined entirely to the Sisseton and Santee Sioux. Shinny, such
as is enjoyed by white boys on the ice, is still played
on the open prairie by the western Sioux. The
"moccasin game," although sometimes played by
the boys, was intended mainly for adults.

The "mud-and-willow" fight was rather a
severe and dangerous sport. A lump of soft clay
was stuck on the end of a limber and springy willow wand and thrown as boys throw apples from
sticks, with considerable force. When there were
fifty or a hundred players on each side, the battle
became warm; but anything to arouse the bravery
of Indian boys seemed to them a good and wholesome diversion.

Wrestling was largely indulged in by us all. It
may seem odd,, but wrestling was done by a great
many boys at once – from ten to any number on
a side. It was really a battle, in which each one
chose his opponent. The rule was that if a boy
sat down, he was let alone, but as long as he remained standing within the field, he was open to
an attack. No one struck with the hand, but all
manner of tripping with legs and feet and butting
with the knees was allowed. Altogether it was an
exhausting pastime – fully equal to the American
game of football and only the young athlete could
really enjoy it.

One of our most curious sports was a war upon
the nests of wild bees. We imagined ourselves
about to make an attack upon the Ojibways or
some tribal foe. We all painted and stole cautiously upon the nest; then, with a rush and warwhoop, sprang upon the object of our attack and
endeavored to destroy it. But it seemed that the
bees were always on the alert and never entirely
surprised, for they always raised quite as many
scalps as did their bold assailants! After the onslaught upon the nest was ended, we usually followed it by a pretended scalp dance.

On the occasion of my first experience in this
mode of warfare, there were two other little boys
who were also novices. One of them particularly
was really too young to indulge in an exploit of
that kind. As it was the custom of our people,
when they killed or wounded an enemy on the battle field, to announce the act in a loud voice, we
did the same. My friend, Little Wound (as I will
call him, for I do not remember his name), being
quite small, was unable to reach the nest until it
had been well trampled upon and broken and the
insects had made a counter charge with such vigor
as to repulse and scatter our numbers in every direction. However, he evidently did not want to
retreat without any honors; so he bravely jumped
upon the nest and yelled:

"I, the brave Little Wound, to-day kill the only
fierce enemy!"

Scarcely were the last words uttered when he
screamed as if stabbed to the heart. One of his
older companions shouted:

"Dive into the water! Run! Dive into the
water!" for there was a lake near by. This advice he obeyed.

When we had reassembled and were indulging
in our mimic dance, Little Wound was not allowed
to dance. He was considered not to be in existence – he had been killed by our enemies, the
Bee tribe. Poor little fellow! His swollen face
was sad and ashamed as he sat on a fallen log and
watched the dance. Although he might well have
styled himself one of the noble dead who had died
for their country, yet he was not unmindful that
he had screamed, and this weakness would be apt
to recur to him many times in the future.

We had some quiet plays which we alternated
with the more severe and warlike ones. Among
them were throwing wands and snow-arrows. In
the winter we coasted much. We had no "double-rippers" or toboggans, but six or seven of the
long ribs of a buffalo, fastened together at the
larger end, answered all practical purposes. Sometimes a strip of bass-wood bark, four feet long and
about six inches wide, was used with considerable
skill. We stood on one end and held the other,
using the slippery inside of the bark for the outside, and thus coasting down long hills with remarkable speed.

The spinning of tops was one of the all-absorbing winter sports. We made our tops heartshaped of wood, horn or bone. We whipped
them with a long thong of buckskin. The handle
was a stick about a foot long and sometimes we
whittled the stick to make it spoon-shaped at one
end.

We played games with these tops – two to fifty
boys at one time. Each whips his top until it
hums; then one takes the lead and the rest follow in a sort of obstacle race. The top must spin
all the way through. There were bars of snow
over which we must pilot our top in the spoon
end of our whip; then again we would toss it in the
air on to another open spot of ice or smooth snowcrust from twenty to fifty paces away. The top
that holds out the longest is the winner.

Sometimes we played "medicine dance." This,
to us, was almost what "playing church" is among
white children, but our people seemed to think it
an act of irreverence to imitate these dances,
therefore performances of this kind were always
enjoyed in secret. We used to observe all the important ceremonies and it required something of an
actor to reproduce the dramatic features of the
dance. The real dances occupied a day and a
night, and the program was long and varied, so
that it was not easy to execute all the details
perfectly; but the Indian children are born imitators.

The boys built an arbor of pine boughs in some
out-of-the-way place and at one end of it was a
rude lodge. This was the medicine lodge or headquarters. All the initiates were there. At the
further end or entrance were the door-keepers or
soldiers, as we called them. The members of
each lodge entered in a body, standing in single
file and facing the headquarters. Each stretched
out his right hand and a prayer was offered by the
leader, after which they took the places assigned
to them.

When the preliminaries had been completed,
our leader sounded the big drum and we all said
"A-ho-ho-ho!" as a sort of amen. Then the choir
began their song and whenever they ended a verse,
we all said again "A-ho-ho-ho!" At last they
struck up the chorus and we all got upon our feet
and began to dance, by simply lifting up one foot
and then the other, with a slight swing to the
body.

Each boy was representing or imitating some
one of the medicine men. We painted and decorated ourselves just as they did and carried bird
or squirrel skins, or occasionally live birds and
chipmunks as our medicine bags and small white
shells or pebbles for medicine charms.

Then the persons to be initiated were brought
in and seated, with much ceremony, upon a blanket
or buffalo robe. Directly in front of them the
ground was levelled smooth and here we laid an
old pipe filled with dried leaves for tobacco.
Around it we placed the variously colored feathers
of the birds we had killed, and cedar and sweetgrass we burned for incense.

Finally those of us who had been selected to perform this ceremony stretched out our arms at full
length, holding the sacred medicine bags and aiming
them at the new members. After swinging them four
times, we shot them suddenly forward, but did not
let go. The novices then fell forward on their
faces as if dead. Quickly a chorus was struck up
and we all joined in a lively dance around the supposed bodies. The girls covered them up with
their blankets, thus burying the dead. At last we
resurrected them with our charms and led them to
their places among the audience. Then came the
last general dance and the final feast.

I was often selected as choir-master on these occasions, for I had happened to learn many of the
medicine songs and was quite an apt mimic. My
grandmother, who was a noted medicine woman of
the Turtle lodge, on hearing of these sacrilegious
acts (as she called them) warned me that if any of
the medicine men should discover them, they would
punish me terribly by shriveling my limbs with
slow disease.

Occasionally, we also played "white man." Our
knowledge of the pale-face was limited, but we had
learned that he brought goods whenever he came
and that our people exchanged furs for his merchandise. We also knew that his complexion was
pale, that he had short hair on his head and long
hair on his face and that he wore coat, trousers,
and hat, and did not patronize blankets in the daytime. This was the picture we had formed of the
white man.

So we painted two or three of our number with
white clay and put on them birchen hats which we
sewed up for the occasion; fastened a piece of fur
to their chins for a beard and altered their costumes as much as lay within our power. The
white of the birch-bark was made to answer for
their white shirts. Their merchandise consisted of
sand for sugar, wild beans for coffee, dried leaves
for tea, pulverized earth for gun-powder, pebbles
for bullets and clear water for the dangerous "spirit
water." We traded for these goods with skins of
squirrels, rabbits and small birds.

When we played "hunting buffalo" we would
send a few good runners off on the open prairie
with a supply of meat; then start a few equally
swift boys to chase them and capture the food.
Once we were engaged in this sport when a real
hunt by the men was in progress; yet we did not
realize that it was so near until, in the midst of our
play, we saw an immense buffalo coming at full
speed directly toward us. Our mimic buffalo hunt
turned into a very real buffalo scare. Fortunately,
we were near the edge of the woods and we soon
disappeared among the leaves like a covey of young
prairie-chickens and some hid in the bushes while
others took refuge in tall trees.

We loved to play in the water. When we had
no ponies, we often had swimming matches of our
own and sometimes made rafts with which we
crossed lakes and rivers. It was a common
thing to "duck" a young or timid boy or to
carry him into deep water to struggle as best
he might.

I remember a perilous ride with a companion on
an unmanageable log, when we were both less than
seven years old. The older boys had put us on
this uncertain bark and pushed us out into the
swift current of the river. I cannot speak for my
comrade in distress, but I can say now that I would
rather ride on a swift bronco any day than try to
stay on and steady a short log in a river.
I never knew how we managed to prevent a shipwreck
on that voyage and to reach the shore.

We had many curious wild pets. There were
young foxes, bears, wolves, raccoons, fawns, buffalo
calves and birds of all kinds, tamed by various
boys. My pets were different at different times, but
I particularly remember one. I once had a grizzly
bear for a pet and so far as he and I were concerned,
our relations were charming and very close. But I
hardly know whether he made more enemies for me
or I for him. It was his habit to treat every boy
unmercifully who injured me. He was despised
for his conduct in my interest and I was hated on
account of his interference.